Enchanted Island

Two DVD set. "A Showcase for and a love letter to a century of amazing music" is how the creator of the Enchanted Island, Jeremy Sams, described this spectacular operatic pasticcio of music by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, Purcell and others. Premiered at the Metropolitan in New York on New Year's Eve 2011, it stars Joyce DiDonato, David Daniels, Danielle de Niese and Placido Domingo, and is conducted by William Christie. With a story based on Shakespear's the Tempest and a Midsummer Night's Dream, it was not the work of a contemporary composer, but instead, drew on works by figures of the Baroque era Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, Purcell, Campra, Ferrandini, Leclair and Rebel. Devised by the British writer, librettist and translator, Jeremy Sams, the piece revived the 18th century tradition of the pasticcio, taking arias from a variety of different sources and setting them to a new libretto.